TRENTON — A nonprofit group's effort to get a specialty New Jersey license plate with the tagline "Choose Life" has been revived by a federal appeals court.

State officials argued that they have the right to reject plate slogans that may be deemed political, religious or otherwise controversial. A U.S. district judge agreed, dismissing a 2008 lawsuit filed the New York-based Children First Foundation.

The group appealed, and a three-judge panel revived the suit today on the grounds that the state's decision may have amounted to impermissible "viewpoint discrimination."

"The court should have focused on whether the prohibition of certain advocacy messages and the permission of others based solely on the viewpoints expressed constituted such a violation," wrote Judge Theodore McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Anti-abortion groups have won approval in at least 18 states for specialized license plates with the tagline "Choose Life." But officials in New Jersey and other states have fought the requests.

The case will now be sent back to U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano for further proceedings.

Mitsu Yasukawa/The Star-LedgerSpecialty license plates are displayed in a show case at Motor Vehicle Agency in Newark in August 2009. An anti-abortion non-profit organization is still fighting New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission to make a specialty license plate with "Choose Life" on it.